Day 3 & 4: Isla Mujeres- The Sailfishing Continues

Follow Christopher Collins as he chronicles his week-long trip to the breath-taking waters of Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Many Florida Sportsman members know Chris from his posts as NoSlack on the Florida Sportsman forums or may have seen his name pop up in the magazine. The journey starts on February 14 and lasts until February 20, when he flies home to Southeast Florida. During his trip to Mexico, he will experience its exceptional sailfishing. Chris hopes to highlight his trip by fishing the “baitballs,” a unique scenario when sailfish packs actively corral baitfish into a tight ball and take turns picking off the stragglers.

Day 3 & 4: February 16 – 17

Isla Mujeres: The Sailfishing Continues

Good morning everyone! Being timely in Mexico is not as easy as I thought it would be. For being so tranquilo, there is so much going on all the time. The last couple of days have been pretty straight-forward fishing days, with things tapering off a little bit from the first incredible day of bait ball fishing. The last couple of days we have been off the “birds” and just sticking to trolling.

The night of day two, which can also be considered the beginning of the my third day here, got a little crazy. Back to those scorpion shots. By the end of my night, I did three. Yes, I ate three scorpions and they were still alive! Stingers removed, of course. The shot went a little something like this: The bartender, Lori, gets your scorpion out of a large bottle full of tequila and places it on a plate with salt and Tabasco. Then Lori pours you a shot of fine tequila and another of tomato juice. You then proceed to dip the scorpion in the salt and tabasco and begin the chewing process, wash it down with the tequila shot and chase it with the tomato juice. It wasn’t that bad. Of course, for various reasons, I ended up doing a couple more that night.

The last couple days were amazing as far as a trolling bite is concerned. Stellar might be a better word. I can see how anglers could get very spoiled here. If I can recall correctly, we released 27 and had about 35 bites on day three. Yesterday was a tad slower and our angling could have been a little better. Nonetheless, not to bad, eh? I am truly getting a taste of how difficult it can be to keep a sail tight on the end of the line, even more so on how frustrating it can be to get one to take a whack at your bait. You learn experience quickly here though with as many shots as you have per day. Not only that, I have been able to capture some pretty good shots with the camera. I’ve also had plenty of opportunities!

Trying to find a balance between shooting photography and fishing, but to me, it’s all pretty relative.

The crew, as always, is just the best. The excitement, the laughs, the commentary–if you don’t have a good time with these guys something is just wrong with ya’. One pretty funny tradition is taking a box of Lucky Charms, the cereal, and dumping it all over the deck. There magically delicious! I’ll have some video footage of that and a couple great sailfish bites going up shortly.

Thank you for keeping up with reports, you are striking it rich down there. Any chance of some more day 1 pictures of the sailfish on the bait balls from up on the bridge?

Capt. Rick

You guys got to go to Jax Bar and Grill right on the main drag in Isla where the statue is. They also have the best charter boat fishing for sails on the island booking out of there. Owned and operated by two Americans you can't go wrong. Great place, great food, great fishing, it just doesn't get any better than Jax!!